Yesterday we all got jackets. Dark blue, lightweight but sturdy cotton jackets, with the Pismo logo and "Pismo Beach Planning" sewn on them. A first for the planning division, although other departments have had shirts and jackets forever.

I love the jacket. I feel such an odd thing, a pride, in having it. It is emblematic, a symbol of my acceptance as one of the Pismo Beach team, and for whatever reason this pleases me greatly.

It isn't normally like me to want this sort of thing, to like it, not to scoff at it. Why is this different? Perhaps it has to do with having flown the SLO nest in 1998 and having found acceptance elsewhere. That's part of it, anyway.